Flowers for Sasuke
by taking it easy
Summary: Naruto is forced by Iruka to apologize to Sasuke for once again antagonizing him. He decides to do it the Naruto way-with flowers. And he'll need Ino's help to do it.


"I don't care if _he_ won, Naruto," Chunin sensei Iruka Umino stated exasperatedly, " _You_ provoked him, so _you_ need to apologize."

"But Sasuke had it coming, ya know! That jerk!" Naruto Uzumaki, Academy student, pouted angrily at his sensei.

Iruka brought his hand up to rub the side of his head. "I know, I _know._ "

Several minutes, and one big headache, later, Iruka had finally managed to get Naruto to agree to apologize.

Naruto, however, had other plans. Heading to a place he'd never been before, someplace called a "Library," He thought it was called, he set out to search for a book. The blonde entered the silent place with little trouble, and went to search for the section on botany.

He ended up having to look up five different species of flower in the book titled _Victorian Flower Dictionary._ He wrote them down with a vicious grin, and headed out to the Yamanaka flower shop.

Of course, it took a while to find, Naruto having no idea where it was located.

"Hello and welco—Naruto?" A girl garbed in purple and fiddling with a long ponytail in boredom perked up immediately. "What's up?" Ino looked slyly at her whiskered classmate, "Decided to get flowers for Hinata?"

Naruto's first reply was to look bewildered at the prospect, "Huh? No, I'm just here to get flowers, ya know."

"Well duh." She deadpanned, "But for _who?_ "

Naruto grinned at the girl, "Sasuke." He answered mischievously.

Ino's eyes widened, and she couldn't help the thought that passed through her mind, 'Wait, _Naruto_ likes Sasuke, too?' She guessed he was even dreamier than he thought. She took a moment to lament for Naruto that the Uchiha would never return the blonde boy's affections.

"Do you have any flowers in mind?" She started walking over to the nearest section: carnations.

"Um," Naruto paused, trying to read his admittedly less-than-legible penmanship, "First, carnations."

She knew it, "Do you know what color? Pinks are a classic, although if you're feeling intense you could go with a sort of ruby color."

"No, no, I need yellow ones, ya know."

Oh. Disdain or contempt. _That_ sounded much more reasonable for Naruto, off all people. She should've known, but at least this'd make a funny story for Sakura – not that'd she listen, thanks to the riva— "No, I'm working. Can't think about that right now."

Naruto looked up from his decryption work, "Huh? You say something?"

"No, no. I was just talking to myself. So, yellow carnations. Anything else?"

Naruto quickly went back to his note, "Um, 'orange ee-lie-ees'?"

"Uh, what?"

"'Orange eeliees'?"

"Lemme see that." Ino grumbled. She looked at the note in confusion, astounded that someone's handwriting can be _that_ messy. "That says lilies. Orange lilies." She went over to the row of flowers where the lilies where located, grabbing several of the orange ones.

Squinting at the note, she added, "Mad cow seat… Mad cow seat… Oh, meadowsweet – you should really work on your handwriting."

Naruto grumbled as he watched the girl walk around, grabbing the different flowers and arranging them as she went. Geraniums were next, and then foxgloves.

"Figures that _you'd_ come up with this," Ino stated with a straight face as she arranged and rearranged the bouquet. "How'd you even learn flower language?"

Naruto grinned and puffed his chest in reply, happy to be able to explain his genius. "I found a book about it, ya know!"

"A book? _You_ read a book?"

"Yep! I found it in a place called 'Library.' They had a whole bunch of books and scrolls and stuff, ya know!" He slumped, remembering the time he spent, "It took so long to find the one I needed."

"I bet." She said distractedly, "I'm impressed you even managed it."

Ignoring the thinly veiled insult, Naruto puffed his chest out again, "It was no problem for a future Hokage, ya know!"

Ino smirked, once again adjusting the visual cacophony of pink, red, yellow, orange, and off-white. She slyly slipped in a response, "I don't know what kind of _Hokage_ would get another guy flowers."

Naruto caught that slight, and immediately got flustered. "Oi! It's not like I like him, ya know! You know what this is supposed to mean, ya know!"

She thought it was too easy, "Yeah, _I_ do, but does he? Boys don't take any of the flower classes."

Naruto paused, wide-eyed. "Haha! I know something he doesn't, ya know! Take that, you jerk!"

Ino blanched at Naruto's complete jump in logic and demeanor.

She slapped her forehead, "Ugh, only _you_ would think that way." She said quietly, not bothering to stop Naruto's victory dance. At least this was more interesting than sitting at a counter for hours with almost no customers.

"Hey, so how long is it gonna take to fix those anyway?" Naruto peered curiously at the bouquet, wondering at how much time has passed.

Honestly just not wanting to go back to solitude, Ino decided to mess with the boy, "Well, if I don't get it just right –" She paused dramatically, pretending to focus entirely on arranging the flowers _perfectly._

"What? What?" Naruto pestered impatiently.

Ino smirked, 'satisfied' with her work enough to reply. "If I don't get it just right, Sasuke might get the _wrong idea._ " She valiantly resisted the urge to snicker.

Naruto looked irritated at the prospect, "What idea? What?" He went on.

Trying her best not to sigh and slap his idiocy, she spelled it out for him, "Well, since you got him flowers, and he probably won't know what they mean, Sasuke _might_ think that you like him."

The look of sheer horror on the boy's face lightened Ino's mood considerably, she noticed. Messing with him was awfully fun.

"That can't happen, ya know!" He crossed his arms angrily, "No way! I'll leave a note with the flowers to really get the point across, ya know!"

Outright laughing now, Ino finally handed him the flowers. "You do that."

Naruto took the bouquet gratefully, and handed her some money.

"Thanks, Ino!"

"No problem," She rolled her eyes at the boy, muttering after he exited.

Geraniums, meaning "Stupidity"; Foxglove, for "insincerity"; meadowsweet, to say "useless"; and yellow carnations, which would tell him "I disdain you"; all tied together by orange lilies, representing "hatred."

"Only _Naruto_ would ever think to say 'Screw you, Sasuke,' with flowers."

 **Inspired by a tumblr post.**


End file.
